ANIMAL INSTINCTS

Championship Event

Chino Being Chino

After building a solid reputation in California and Las Vegas card rooms, David "Chino" Rheem was introduced to the mainstream poker world with his 7th place finish in the 2008 WSOP Main Event.

Here at Borgata, Rheem's slowly building his stack on day 1A of the Championship Event and is hovering around 80k after knocking out an opponent with (K J).

Rheem displays his colorful personality when asked how he's been playing. "I'm an animal kid, you know that," as he stacks his chips.

One other player chimes in, "Chino's, Chino. We're having fun."

Players are past the halfway point of Saturday's day as Level 5 (100/200/25 ante) continues.

They'll play through Level 8 before shutting it down.

260 of the 326 starting field remains with an average stack of 38k.